Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, sir. (Operator Instructions). Your first question will come from the line of Jim Rollyson with Raymond James. And your line is open.
Jim Rollyson - Raymond James
Good morning, gentlemen.
Brett Harvey
Hi, Jim.
Jim Rollyson - Raymond James
Brett, first of all, great quarter. A couple years back, you guys spun-out or sold-off a piece and took publicly the gas business, and I think the methodology then was trying to enhance the valuation recognized by the market for the business because it wasn't getting it kind of under the CONSOL umbrella at the time. And it seems, because you've gone through the last 12 months or so, the moves you've made, it seem to indicate that maybe you're obviously trying to bring back in or retain that value under the CONSOL umbrella.
Could you maybe walkthrough the logic of what's changed over the last year or two since the initial move kind of getting it out there to maybe looking towards bringing it back in? And how you see that or how you think the market interprets the value of these two businesses from a combined basis versus a stand-alone basis?
Brett Harvey
Well, that's a good question. And let's go back to when we did do it. So, when we spun it out, we did it with the intention of recognizing the value of that company. And it quickly went from what we thought in our share price was about $1 billion and now it's got its own market capital of over $4 billion. So that was a success. Now, the real issue is we are an energy company, and we sell BTUs, and they're combined with coal, and they're combined with gas. But we needed to establish that value.
About a year ago, the Board on my recommendation, decided not to ever go underneath the 80%, and continue to grow the gas company within the umbrella of CONSOL Energy.
So when the Board announced that a year ago, we made a move to make a deal with the outside shareholders, that didn't work; we were at disport values, and we decided we would go ahead and run the company with partners so to speak. Well, we've done that, and we continue to do that. We have brought some shares back based on value since then, and we've done some consolidation moves to make us more efficient on the managerial side and the overhead side. And we will continue to grow that gas company at a very rapid pace, because we are a BTU energy delivery company.
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